New Delhi: Contrary to the popular belief
that Indian youths abhor politics, a new study by a social
research organisation has suggested their interest in politics
has consistently risen and a significant number of young men
and women are willing to enter the field if given a chance.

What comes as a more interesting observation is that youth
of the middle class, generally believed to be cynical to
politics, are more in favour of making a career in politics
than their counterparts in other economic stratas.

The report prepared by the researchers and scholars of
the Centre of Studies for Developing Society (CSDS), in
collaboration with the German institute Konrad Adenauer
Stiftung (KAS), lays out a series of interesting outcomes on
how Indian youths` engagement with politics was emerging.
The study based on a survey of 2,565 respondents and other
mechanisms points to a rising interest of youths in politics
as well as their awareness of issues, and concludes that
today`s youths are taking more interest in politics than those
of mid-90s.

The study titled `Indian Youth and Politics: An Emerging
Engagement` that divided respondents into youth and older ones
to analyse the difference in opinions found that over 60
percent of the Indian youths were interested in politics as
compared to nearly 50 per cent of the older respondents.
"Not only are the youths in same time and same social
space more interested in politics than the rest, over time too
youths` interest in politics seems to be on a consistent
rise," says the study.

While in 1996, 37 per cent of youth were interested in
politics, this number has been consistently rising ever since
and as many as 52 per cent of those surveyed between the age
group of 18 and 33 this time said they had some interest in
politics.